Pizza monkey bread is a fun and delicious twist on traditional pizza! This savory and cheesy appetizer is made by baking bite-sized Bridgford Parkerhouse-style roll dough with layers of pepperoni, cheese, veggies, and marinara sauce. The result is a pull-apart bread that’s perfect for sharing with friends and family.
This post is brought to you by Bridgford Foods.
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Great for kids!
This pepperoni pizza monkey bread is a great option for kids. The gooey cheese and sauce-covered rolls will be gone before you know it. - Perfect quick and easy weeknight dinner.
During this busy time of year, having a meal you can count on to be filling, delicious, and quick to make is priceless. Not only is it kid-approved, but it’s also mom-approved! - The ultimate comfort food.
With fall right around the corner and winter soon to follow, this hot and melty dish is the ultimate comfort food.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Bridgford Parkerhouse Style Rolls dough – These pre-made frozen rolls are the perfect shortcut for making this pizza pull apart bread. Bridgford does all the dough prep with quality non-GMO ingredients, so you don’t have to.
- Butter – Unsalted butter works best in this recipe because you can control the salt level and avoid adding too much.
- Pizza sauce – You can use pizza sauce, or elevate the flavor with a marinara, like our super quick recipe for marinara sauce homemade recipe.
- Vegetables – This recipe adds in some chopped onions, shredded carrots, and diced bell peppers for a nutritional boost and additional flavor. They’re optional, so use whatever your family likes, or feel free to leave them out.
- Bridgford pepperoni- We love Bridgford’s pepperoni slices! Although we only used pepperoni for this recipe, you can use salami, too.
- Mozzarella cheese – This recipe uses fresh mozzarella, but you can use pre-shredded if you’d like.
- Italian seasonings – You can use dried Italian seasoning or make a custom blend with dried oregano, thyme, rosemary, and parsley to use instead.
Find Bridgford’s frozen rolls and dough in the freezer section at stores locally (see here for where to buy). Here’s a coupon you can use toward your next purchase.
Recipe Variations
- Adjust the veggies how you like them.
The vegetables add a delicious element of flavor and texture to these pull-aparts. You can add extra veggies if your family likes them, blend them into the sauce, or even remove them altogether. It’s up to you and your preferences.
Try olives, artichoke hearts, asparagus, mushrooms, pepperoncini, or cherry tomatoes. - Choose your protein or make it vegetarian.
Pepperoni is a classic option for pizza, but you can use whichever type of protein you like best. Possible options are pre-cooked chicken breast, sausage, salami, or even prosciutto.
- Consider using a different type of sauce.
While a red sauce is delicious and goes great with this dish, you can swap it out for another kind. If your family loves barbecue sauce, white sauce, garlic oil, or even pesto sauce, go ahead and use it!
Pizza Monkey Bread Recipe Tips
- Create two layers of dough.
To make this meal extra delicious, be sure to cut the dough balls in half. This way, you can create two layers of all that goodness!
- Finely chop the veggies so your kids don’t notice them.
For a kid-friendly pizza monkey bread, you may want to soften the vegetables a little bit, too.
If so, place the shredded or finely diced veggies in a microwave-safe dish with 2 tablespoons of water.
Then, cover the dish with its lid (or a sheet of plastic wrap). Microwave it on high for 2 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.
After that, just stir the cooked veggies into your prepared sauce to hide them. Super easy, and a great way to get kids to eat more vegetables!
- Let the loaf rise before baking.
Remember that the dough for frozen rolls needs to rise before baking to make them wonderfully fluffy.
So, after assembling the dish, cover it with plastic wrap, then let the dough rise at room temperature for about an hour.
Serving Suggestions
Since everyone loves cheese, you may add some parmesan cheese on top of this pull-apart pizza bread. Add your favorite pizza toppings or use some warm marinara sauce instead of pizza sauce. You can make it spicy by adding red pepper flakes to the sauce. Top it with fresh parsley, fresh basil, or other herbs.
You can also use a bundt pan instead of a loaf pan.
🎯 TFN Pro Tip
If you’d like to make the pull-apart pizza monkey bread ahead of time, cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 8 to 10 hours.
When you’re ready to continue, remove the pan from the fridge and let the dough come to room temperature before baking.
Recipe FAQs
After baking, if you notice that your pizza monkey bread is doughy in the center, that means it’s still slightly undercooked. Go ahead and cover the top with aluminum foil, then continue to bake until the center is cooked all the way through.
Yes, Bridgford frozen roll dough is safe to thaw at room temperature! See the bag for complete directions. You can also them in your fridge overnight.
Yes! You can add finely chopped or shredded vegetables to pizza without cooking them first. The heat of the oven will cook the veggies perfectly in this cooking time.
Store leftover pizza monkey bread in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.
To reheat, warm it up in the microwave in 30-second intervals until warmed all the way through. You can also heat it up in an oven or air fryer if you’d like to crisp up the edges again.
This is also an excellent dish for freezing. You can make it ahead of time and freeze before baking, or you can freeze leftovers.
If you freeze ahead of time, allow the pizza pull-apart monkey bread to thaw in the refrigerator and then bake it as you normally would.
More Easy Pizza Recipes To Love…
- Quick Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe
- Bisquick Recipes Pizza Crust
- Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough Recipe
- Pizza Using Frozen Dough
If you tried this pizza monkey bread recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Pizza Monkey Bread
Equipment
- 2-pound loaf pan - 9-inch square baking dish, or 10-inch cast iron skillet
- non-stick cooking spray
Ingredients
- 25 ounces Bridgford Parkerhouse style rolls thawed but still cold
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted (4 Tbsp = 2 oz = 1/2 stick)
- 1 ½ cups pizza sauce or marinara sauce
- ½ small carrot peeled and finely chopped, divided (optional)
- ¼ bell pepper cleaned and finely chopped, divided (optional)
- 24 slices Bridgford pepperoni cut into fourths (optional)
- 8 ounces mozzarella cheese cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning or other dried seasoning of choice
Instructions
- Follow package instructions for thawing frozen rolls; keep them chilled in the fridge until ready.
- Prepare loaf pan (or other baking pan) by greasing with butter or non-stick cooking spray, then set it aside.
- Using sharp kitchen shears, cut each of the dough rolls into 2 equal sized pieces. Lightly dip each dough ball into the melted butter, and arrange them in a single layer on the bottom of the pan. * This should use about 1/3 of the dough.
- Add half of the cut pepperoni on top of the dough balls. Sprinkle half of the carrots and bell pepper over the top, followed by 1/2 cup of sauce, and a pinch of seasoning.
- For the second layer, dip about half of the remaining dough balls in melted butter and arrange them in a single layer over the other ingredients in the pan. Place half of the cheese cubes on top of the dough balls, then sprinkle the remaining carrots and bell pepper over the top, followed by 1/2 cup of sauce.
- For the top layer, repeat the process with the dough. Place remaining cheese between the balls, along with the remaining pepperoni slices, then pour the last 1/2 cup of sauce evenly over the dough.
- Sprinkle the remaining dried seasonings evenly over the top of the unbaked monkey bread loaf, then cover the pan loosely with a kitchen towel or sheet of plastic wrap. **Note: If you'd like to make the pizza monkey bread ahead of time, cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 8 to 10 hours. When you're ready to continue, remove the pan from the fridge and let the dough come to room temperature before baking.Otherwise, place the pan in a warm, dry location for 30 minutes, to let the monkey bread rise.
- When dough is risen (or if making ahead, has come to room temperature), remove the plastic wrap or towel and cover the top of the pan with aluminum foil.Preheat your oven to 325°F.
- Place the pan of pull apart rolls in preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then quickly but carefully open the oven door and remove the foil from the pan. Close the oven door and continue baking for another 15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and the top of the loaf is golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
This post is sponsored by Bridgford Foods. All views are my own and based on my own personal experience using their products.
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Carrie Robinson says
This is such a fun idea! I know my family would love this. 🙂
Amanda Wren-Grimwood says
Made these with my kids and they loved it! Great fun to make and delicious too.